Sen. Lindsey Graham slammed efforts by Democrats to impeach President Trump in the wake of the phone call he had with the president of Ukraine in July.
The South Carolina Republican reacted to the White House releasing the transcript of the conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, telling reporters that it would be “insane” to use the contents of that call against Trump.
(Video: CNN)
“From my point of view, to impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane,” Graham said Wednesday.
He went on to address the obvious conflict of interest for former Vice President Joe Biden in the Ukraine controversy while calling out the double standard.
“Joe Biden is a very good friend, but we can’t have a country where one side gets looked at and the other one does not,” Graham added.
“I can assure you that if any Republican family member was engaged in conduct like this, they would raise questions,” he later said.
The Republican lawmaker took to Twitter to reiterate his belief that this whole situation was a perfect example of an over-blown nothing burger.
Wow. Impeachment over this?
What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger.
Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President @realDonaldTrump.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 25, 2019
Those who believe that the transcript is a “Smoking Gun” for impeachment, do something about it – have the courage of your convictions.
The House of Reps should take a vote to formally open an impeachment inquiry.
Let the American people see where Members of Congress stand!
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 25, 2019
If you are underwhelmed by this transcript, you are not alone or “crazy.”
Those willing to impeach the president over this transcript have shown their hatred for @realDonaldTrump overrides reason.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 25, 2019
The latest attacks on Trump unfolded in the wake of a whistleblower complaint alleging he made a “promise” to the Ukrainian president as he urged him to investigate Biden’s son Hunter who, since 2014 when his father was vice president, served on the board of a gas company in the nation.
Critics relentlessly attacked Trump over the call and its alleged contents while ignoring the reported wrong-doing by Biden, who has denied ever speaking to his son about his business in Ukraine. But Biden admitted on camera last year that he strong-armed then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 when he was serving as vice president in the Obama administration, bragging that he threatened to withhold U.S. aid if the prosecutor investigating the company his son worked for wasn’t fired.
The president repeatedly asserted that nothing inappropriate occurred on the call and that Biden’s “corruption” was at the heart of the issue. The released transcript backed up Trump’s assertions but Democrats continue to press ahead with cries of conspiracy in their push to impeach.
“You can ask for the prosecutor to be fired if you think he is corrupt and it is in the national interest of the United States. A lot of people felt the guy was corrupt,” Graham told reporters Wednesday.
(Video: Fox News)
“But the one thing that I think has to be dealt with here is that the son of the vice president was receiving a lot of money from the Ukraine and some of the sources of the funds were under investigation by the prosecutor. I don’t know what the right answer is. I just hope somebody will look at it, and I don’t mind the president bringing up the idea that maybe the guy was fired because of a conflict of interest,” he added.
Graham quickly shot down a reporter’s question about whether it was “appropriate” for Trump to ask the foreign leader to investigate a potential political rival.
“I don’t know what you looked at,” the Republican replied. “I think it’s very appropriate for the president of the United States to suggest that you had a corruption problem and the prosecutor that was fired maybe was because he was corrupt or maybe because he was looking — looking at something close to America here.”
“The vice president’s son was receiving money from the Ukraine, was on the board of a company that was the subject of investigation. The question that got me going was did the president of the United States suggest to the Ukraine I will withhold money unless you go after my political rival. The answer is absolutely not” he said.
“From my point of view Joe Biden is a decent guy but there is a conflict here,” Graham said.
“It’s okay to talk about an obvious conflict,” he added. “The person arguing for him to be fired had a conflict of interest. If you don’t see that conflict you are blind. If you don’t see that there is a double-standard here when it comes to Trump and everybody else, you are blind. You are willfully blind.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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